New England Biz Law Update

An insurance carrier did not abuse its discretion by attributing the death of an ERISA plan participant in a car crash to a pre-existing condition and denying his widow’s claim for accidental death benefits, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of ...

Employment lawyers don’t know precisely what shape the wave of litigation triggered by employer responses to the COVID-19 pandemic will take, but few doubt that that wave is coming. In the “rush” to implement furloughs and layoffs, many employers simply ...

A Delaware choice-of-law provision was properly applied in enforcing a non-solicitation agreement against a former sales employee who went to work for a competitor, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has determined. Defendant Timothy Day and his onetime employer, ...

Weighing a plaintiff’s disability discrimination and FMLA retaliation claims under the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting paradigm, a federal judge in Rhode Island has determined they cannot withstand the defendant employer’s motion for summary judgment. The suit was brought by Lisa O’Rourke ...

A business that provides sales and marketing services to energy and wireless companies was not the “joint employer” of door-to-door salespeople hired by one of its subcontractors, a judge in Massachusetts’ Business Litigation session has decided. Defendant Credico (USA) LLC ...

Purchasers of a diabetes drug can pursue antitrust claims based on allegations that drug maker Sanofi-Aventis wrongfully extended its monopoly by improperly listing a patent in the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s “Orange Book,” the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of ...

A biotech company that terminated an executive before he reached certain equity incentives under his contract did not breach the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Abiomed hired plaintiff ...

Two private equity funds that co-owned a manufacturer that went bankrupt were not responsible for pension fund withdrawal liability the company incurred at the time of its bankruptcy, the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found. Plaintiffs Sun Capital ...

A Cambridge software company could pursue statutory false advertising claims against a competitor that touted on its website a “white paper” disparaging the plaintiff’s products without disclosing that the defendant had commissioned the study, a U.S. District Court judge in ...

Claims by two female employees that their former supervisor subjected them to a hostile work environment based on their gender and retaliated against them when they complained of the discrimination presented genuine, material disputes of fact foreclosing summary judgment in ...